The growing of hybrid seeds, particularly the staple grain of corn, long has been an important part of our agricultural business. In order to grow hybrid corn seeds, the tassels of the corn stalks must be removed so that the corn can be specially pollinated. Many years ago, detasseling corn was accomplished by a number of laborers on a suitable drawn vehicle. As the vehicle passed down the rows of corn stalks, the laborers simply manually pulled the tassels from the stalks.
As labor became expensive or scarce, various apparatus were designed for mechanically detasseling corn. Such apparatus ranged from implements employing rotary blades such as in Ackermann U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,653, to implement employing belts as in Spry U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,308, to implement employing wheels defining a nip for removing the tassels from the stalks as in Pfister U.S. Pat. No. 2,163,849.
A good example of a prior corn detasseling head which has proven quite successful is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,782 to Paul L. Cler, dated Nov. 6, 1973. In that patent, a construction is shown including a wheeled frame adapted to be propelled through a field. Mounted on the frame is a parallelogram linkage which, at one end, supports one or more detasseling heads. Each detasseling head includes a pair of tires arranged for rotation about parallel axes and in engagement with each other. The axes of rotation of the tires are at an angle in the range of 40.degree. to 50.degree. C. with respect to the horizontal and extend in a vertical plane encompassing the direction of movement of the vehicle. The tires are cleated and the cleats are such as to mesh when the tires are rotated to provide positive gripping action for tassels as the vehicle travels through a corn field. The tires are mounted on generally parallel shafts which are rotated by an appropriate drive means.
One of the problems encountered with using corn detasseling heads of the character described is that the tassels are thrown straight back onto the row of stalks which is being pulled or detasselled. Sometimes, the tassels fall to the ground as desired, but at other times the tassels are caught near the top of the corn stalk, which creates an undesirable condition. Various devices or attachments have been tried, with limited success, for knocking the tassels to the ground. This involves additions to an otherwise efficient and simple implement, or requires additional implements, per se.
This invention is directed to solving the problems described above by a simple concept of changing the head orientation and thereby providing a "throw angle" for the tassels away from the head and the row of corn stalks whereby the tassels fall to the ground between the rows in the field.